https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1988185144

The Skin Above My Knee was requested after a late night boredom enduced round of let’s request randomness. At first you’ll pick it up and ask yourself why even bother. Marcia Butler isn’t a well known name. She’s an oboe player. She doesn’t even play for a famous orchestra. She’s a freelancer that goes wherever her oboe takes her. Then you start to read and you become hooked. It’s a record because I read two page turners this month. You get about midthrough and you start to question everything you thought you knew about memoirs. Who would have thought that the life of a fucking oboe player would be so interesting? Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.

I did not know what to expect coming into this memoir but I cannot stop thinking about it. Nothing about Butler's life is similar to mine but she writes in such a spare but compelling way that dragged me into the world of a tough version of classical music (previously, a bit remote to me) combined with the devastating childhood scars lingering into adulthood. There is so little self-pity in here that even as I mourned Butler's bad decisions, I nevertheless admired and rooted for her. So well done.

Using her musical talents and all references to orchestral play, Butler grips the reader's heart with her deep desire to be loved by her mother. Some readers may get fed up with her drugs and wrong men theme but digging into the reasons she traveled that destructive route makes this an engaging book and one that will leave you thinking.

Forget the sensationalized Mozart in the Jungle: Read Marcia Butler's staggering memoir instead. Butler floats between telling the stories of her abusive childhood, her difficult personal life, and her life as a musician (no musical knowledge needed on the part of the reader). Her grace and fortitude will inspire and touch you (the final chapters were especially emotional) and you'll get a wonderfully accurate look at what it's like to be a professional classical musician.

Marcia Butler has written a memoir that reads like a novel. The narrative is structured in a most interesting way with short chapters that mark incredible experiences. Her imagery is art itself and the words flow beautifully. Perhaps the flow has to do with MB's lifelong love and training in music. MB's instrument was primarily the oboe and she played with just about every major orchestra in New York, around the USA and Europe. She also accepted jobs playing in Broadway plays, a gig that most freelance musicians accept to pay the bills. I was enthralled with all the inside views of life as a musician in New York, in venues that over my lifetime I have visited and enjoyed, and I'm sure that on more than one occasion most definitely heard the oboe played by Marcia Butler.

This memoir included MB's personal struggles that made this book all the more dramatic and urgent in the telling. The child lived first in Massachusetts and then Long Island, NY. Her parents were cruel people who abused her with unique and not so unique ways, ones that can destroy the character and soul of even the strongest children. Marcia's sister got out of the house early on and suffered her own kind of hell. Marcia had to wait to until she entered a music conservatory for her freedom. True to the narrative of most abused children, she tried well into her adult life to gain approval and love from her deranged parents. It is more hurt and one that usually needs professional help if the adult child can heal and live a decent life.

Marcia Butler was blessed with the gift of music that teachers discovered early in her childhood and we can all be thankful for that. She shared that gift with countless audiences around the world and I can only praise and congratulate her for her brilliance and her survival. Her story is another gift shared with readers soon when this memoir is published.

ARC received courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company (February 21st 2017).